Opioid Settlement Advisory - September 15, 2026

Good evening and welcome to the opioid settlement fund advisory committee meeting on Tuesday September 15th.

Um I would like to um call the meeting to order and under Mass General Law Chapter 30A section 20F this meeting has been being recorded. Um I'd like to stand for the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Okay.

And just an announcements, there are a number of people that um are away and could not be here this evening that are on the committee. Um I'd like to start off with approval of the August 18th, 2026 minutes.

Move approval. question. Okay.

Second.

Okay. All in favor?

I I Great.

All right. So, member updates and reports. Uh, Dr. Roy, do you have any?

Uh, no. Not.

Okay. Were you able to send the RFA to No. I wasn't sure if we were okay with that for anybody wanted to look at it first. Why Why did I think Did Did everybody want to see the RFA or did everybody see the RFA before it went to Chris? I thought we just said to go ahead and do it, but I But that was what we were going to do.

Okay. I can, but I didn't. Yeah, I think I was waiting just to see if there were any other um comments.

I I would send it to him and see what comments he makes because he's the one who who scrutinizes the RFA RFP process.

Yeah. Okay. Um, and I did let him know in an email that Okay.

Um, that we were working on making the recommendation to the um the select board about the position that we're crafting. Um, and he said he's looking forward to seeing what the proposal is. So, um, anybody else have any updates?

Okay. All right. So, I have a couple of updates before we get into um what the goal is for this evening, which is to look at options for crafting this um position in the in the town. I've received um correspondence from South Coast Health. Um, it was sent to the board of health, but it was to announce that uh, South Coast is notifying the board of health of our application to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health

Services Administration under notice of funding opportunity, medicationass assisted treatment for prescription drugs and opioid addiction. South Coast Health proposes to expand access to medications for opioid use disorder for adults age 18 and older across the South Coast region of Southeast Massachusetts, including Westport and surrounding communities. The project expands our addiction consult services to all three

South Coast Health hospitals and embeds opioid use disorder identification and treatment initiative in the emergency departments and inpatient units coordinated through a shared electronic health record that connects emergency inpatient outpatient and community services across the region.

So um it the services include hospital initiated buprop buprenorphine and methadone before the discharge with coordinated transfer to certified opioid treatment program partners and extended release nrexone available by referral. So and it's also um combined with counseling behavioral therapies and peer recovery support. So, it's really helpful to know that they're expanding this. Um, and that's another

resource in in the community.

Um, and another um um announcement that came to me in an email or not an email. Um, apparently the um, DPH is sending letters to cities and towns um, communing that communicating that certain expenditures may not be consistent with the requirements of the state's opioid settlement. Um and so we are not on the list.

That's good.

Right. We are not on the list. So there is a list of 52 communities um that now will be um looked at by the state sub excuse me by the DPH.

So just want to let you know that we're okay.

Um, and speaking of expenditures, um, I have, um, I'll be doing the report in October like I did the last time, the municipal where I have to report to the state. So, I, uh, sent an email to um, our accountant um, and asked her to give me the list of expenditures so that I can then report.

So, just so that you know that, I am working on that as well.

Um and so that that is all my announcements. Um we're here to really look at and craft or begin crafting um a position um that we voted on in the last meeting to advise the select board to hire. But we have to craft it and we have to make decisions about how this position um will be um supervised and so forth because the these are some of the things that uh the town administrator had asked

for previously when we were talking about RFPs and who was going to manage that and who was going to supervise. So, um, I have sent I probably inundated all of you with different positions that are currently in place in other municipalities.

One of the ones that is in place that is a municipality that is our size is Eastston and that was sent to me by Detective Donovan. And this particular role is called a community mental health liaison.

Um, and I actually sent her an email today to ask if she's available to speak with me so I can find out how the position is running, what are some of the obstacles, what are some of the um the outcomes um so that that might help us and if possible um if she can speak with us. So um so I sent those out. So, after seeing what you've seen, um, and I

have in front of you as well something I've just been working on. It's a draft.

I expect it to be completely, you know, changed and altered, but I thought we should have something to start with and then build on. So, um, so I've pulled from some of the agencies, some of the descriptions Val sent me.

She's already crossed off and and added and changed a number of things on here which I expect all of you to do. Okay. I just wanted us to have something to then move forward with.

Um,

so in in thinking about this role, what are some of the key pieces that need to be included with that even if if you haven't read it that you think should be involved in the description and the responsibilities of the individual? who would fill this position?

What would you like to see? One of them, Val, I'll tell you what Val added right away on the top, which is what we've been talking about.

Um, she put in the key responsibilities, administration of RFP process and grant management, um, and liaison to Mass Department of Public Health. and she um said that some other things had to be had to be edited.

Um so that was the the top thing and I didn't even include that but that was one of the the issues who was going to manage that who was going to who was going to oversee any RFP um uh process or management. So agreed. Okay.

The other thing that she added, she wanted she said made comments on the side and said, "I don't um" she crossed off counseling. I don't think this is a core responsibility. This could be an additional possible role, but I think it's too cl some of the stuff that I wrote was too clinical. So, that's coming for me as a clinician, right?

um maybe um needs needs assessment and connection to services rather than counseling because I think I did put counseling.

Yeah. I also think there's too much emphasis on mental health. you have huge mental health issues, but this is really about substance abuse. And I know there's some overlap and there's an interplay and stuff like that, but I think if we're going to narrow the focus, I'd also like to put less emphasis on mental health services. It can get overwhelmed by the case load.

Sure. So, I mean, one of the reasons why I I put that in is because you can't separate out mental health and substance use, right?

True. Agreed. But if you start hanging out a shingle saying we're concerned about mental health issues, it's an overwhelming area of of need and it is not necessarily interrelated with substance abuse.

And I know I have differences of opinion around the table on that one.

Well, that's why we're here talking about it. So So would I'm trying to see what is they Yeah, because the one in Easton calls it a community mental health liaison.

That's their focus even though they put opioid and they have stuff about Narcan in there and um Okay.

So you would prefer it not to say mental health, right? It's I'd put it I wouldn't put it as as a lead because substance abuse and opioid dislaughter disorder advocate and and put the and because there's going to be multiple substance issues involved there, not just opioids, but alcohol and things like that.

And we've kept downplaying alcohol which I suggested at the last meeting because that brings in a whole other list of issues.

And this is a there's a fairly narrow highly addictive substance that that we're trying to um work with and that is opioids.

But again, when I look at and if you go back to the abatement agreement, the abatement agreement gives us a lot of leeway as especially when we're talking about if we're going to do something and combine it with the school, especially with teens, that there's a lot more leeway and flexibility to focus on mental health as a way to prevent substance use.

Yeah, it's both goes both ways, right? So So I'm just I'm I'm not talking getting rid of it. I'm talking about deemphasizing, okay?

As opposed to putting in the bold headlines of the job.

And I would emphas I would emphasize advocate, community resource person.

I mean, what we're looking for is an outreach worker.

More than that.

Um, and yeah, and a network person that can do INR information refer resource referral and things like that, right?

But we're also because we talked about in the last meeting and when I asked um Evan Gender who's the chair of the school board, is there a way for us to craft something so that we're supporting the school department and that position is also doing the outreach and so part of um that crafting of this position and I know that that Dr. Roy had already crafted something for a different position

that she was looking for support from the funds and may have to recraft it because you were talking about changing in an email to me maybe changing the title but there's got to be a way um so yeah I mean I mean to your point if this is a full-time position right they can a full-time position and um if we keep it open to both whether what you want to highlight like

you know you can put it as a a a key responsibility for mental health down on the lower end if you want right but let it be open and then um if this person is keeping we could look at referrals right how many referrals are we getting for mental health and substance abuse or one or the other right like we could kind of because they're so comingle ling it's

really hard to say you know if it we can't just say I don't think we can if we say opioid use disorder I don't know what that I don't know what net that's casting so I don't know how many clients so if we kind of kind of keep it open and for this first year or whatever you collect some data to see where the referrals are and and and look at that that interconnection

I think that might be a better way to to do I agree. I think moving it down.

Yeah, you can looking at substance abuse in a broad sense because there's there's some interplay between them.

Mhm.

Um but I just I view mental health as a huge hold in terms of need.

So, and and I agree with you because I work in it for a long time. Um, part of my thinking with that is when we're dealing with substance use dis disorder, there are um casualties that go along with that substance use disorder. Not just the person who's using, but the family and their mental health issues that follow. So, is there a way for us to craft something, wording, whatever?

Because I part of part of my my thinking is is that and in the abatement agreement it addresses, you know, of having support for families um having support for kids whose parents may have um may be struggling with substance use or whose grandparents are raising them because their parents are um have OP opioid use disorder. So,

so again, there's got to be a way for us to word it so that we are focusing on and I and I think I put I don't know if was this the first one I if you sorry too if you um let's just say for for now that you keep the title but in the qualifications you um make sure that there's some sort of experience or some license in substance abuse experience or something

like that, then that would sort of ensure that that level of expertise in there as part of a qualification. So, if you have someone who's just a student adjustment counselor and has never dealt with sub substance abuse, um we would rule that person out because they wouldn't have the qualification. So a way around it might be to make sure that we know um somebody has that background versus just a a regular sort of

counseling mental health background.

Right. And then I put qualifications.

It's bachelor's degree in psychology, social work, counseling, public health or related field. We can more focus in on substance use there. That might be a way to because you then you narrow the focus in a voyer which you're suggesting for which is getting a lot of social workers to do a lot of mental health work.

We've only done a phenomenal amount of amount of right substance abuse work.

Mhm.

And ideally you you you may want to have some people that have experience with 12step programs recovery programs and things like that as well as treatment centers that are anchored in 12step programs. All right.

So if you look at role overview in the draft, the role overview, this is what I put.

This role provides a point of contact service to the community that combines mental health and substance use disorder support. So we can cross off the mental health, substance use disorder support and co-occurring. It could be co-occurring co-occurring or mental health um issues um so with priority on meeting the needs of individuals and families impacted by opioid use disorder. I put that I was

trying to make it more specific. Um, the advocate will interface and work with various town departments including school police, fire, public health, council on aging, veterans, and human resources. The advocate builds trust by working to reduce stigma, improve access to care, and empower residents to make informed decisions about treatment and recovery. Mhm.

The advocate also works to identify those impacted by the opioid crisis that could benefit from opioid settlement fund resources and provide support and information regarding access to resources. So I in the role overview I really focused on opioid use.

No I think I think it but if you if you look at people reading from the top down if you restructure the emphasis and the paragraph one paragraph two is fine.

Okay.

Sorry to be dominating here, but No, no, no. I want I I expected you guys to tear this apart and I and I want that because we have to, you know, we have to to work together to create this to benefit everybody. So um and I'm and I certainly come from you know my background of 40some years in mental health but it's also combined with substance use um uh treatment and interventions as

well. So um but I I want to hear from other perspectives especially people who do policies and have written stuff like this before.

All right. So, why don't we just go down to the next part in key responsibilities and look at that and that's where um that's where Val put in her stuff about the RFP RFA management.

Um yeah, because there's an administrative piece that was sort of missing in the key responsibilities, right?

I actually did have something about that administrative stuff was the documentation part and we'll cross off counseling because that's one of the things that Val recommended client support.

No, but documentation is good but it's look how far down it is on the So it needs to be at the top.

Yeah.

Mhm.

because we want to get renewed funding.

We want to get past our reviews with client whatever. And if we're not documenting or getting a good feedback in terms of the the data from the the casework, we're going to have a hard time adjusting and tweaking what we're doing going forward.

Okay. Is there I mean the only thing I don't see more on the on that side of the house would be applying for other grants.

Yeah.

With this person also for other funds.

Do you have that somewhere?

I think I did write it somewhere.

But I'll put that I'm there.

Okay. So um

so I will go through go through this and remove mental health and find a rewarding or co-occurring mental health issues to reward it.

Just at least get it out of the top top line.

Yeah. No, I'll I'll I'll work on that.

Um, the other thing is and and there's a this is a very long document and I'm wondering if there's ways to take redundancies or stre things that are running parallel with each other to to sort of edit it down to a tighter document. That's sure most it's it's comprehensive. It's good. But I'm I I I look at this and um I'm saying this is two and a half pages compared to some of the other ones. This

is not as long and my font is kind of on the big side.

But having written job descriptions, I've never written one that went more than two pages.

Yeah, Eastston has. This is Eastston's.

It's four pages. Um, and the one in Taton might be a little smaller, but Ton's a bigger city, but New Bedford's is bigger and but um, and Dartmouth is also is is a few pages. I guess they wanted to really make sure they were very specific. Um, but it's we can certainly break it make it more condensed and organize it differently. I still would need, you know, because of what the school department wants and if the

school department is going to supervise and we need to hear what your what you need.

Yeah.

Right. because this person um the things that we want may already be included in in what your goals would be. But if the goal is for us to share this position um and um and it financially support it, then that's one of the places we would need to really start and then add to or so in these other positions. Donna, who um oversees or supervises um folks?

So, I don't know. I think it this one is the police and the town man, the town administrator um in Easton.

Let me see if it says supervision.

There's three phases to supervision in this one. Supervision uh supervision received. Incumbent must be a self-starter to work with a wide array in teams. policy direction from the chief of police, the deputy chief of police.

This position is really to work with the police department, but they do more and director of health and community services.

So that they have several this person has several masters so to speak. So but their primary role was to support the police department. That's where they first I I know in Bridgewater they put the entire opioid settlement grant under the police department.

By the way, they're sort of near each other if you look.

Yeah.

I which I don't agree with. I'm just saying that that that that that came up.

Um and and the the idea from the previous town administrator was that the board of health would assume this. However, the board of health is limping along right now with all the positions that we have vacant and not filled and can't take on um more responsibility.

Well, wouldn't it make sense is that the department in Westport that has is committing the most matching funds and resources to the position supervisor.

That would be the school department.

Right.

Right. And and that's why, you know, we talked about that because what um the school department wanted to create the position that that um Dr. Roy wrote um was for w someone who do all these wraparound services just in the school department and was requesting um funds from the opioid um settlement funds. And so this is the sort of the compromise is to say, okay, we can support this, but can that person

also be in the community?

So if they're committing resources and supervision, then that's part of our asset. I mean, we're bringing something to the table in terms of reporting back to the state.

Correct. We're not sitting here saying we got a fully freestanding opioid settlement advisory fund worker working strictly under uh uh funding from the grant.

Correct. And I've already spoken with um Ally, remember Ally came and spoke to us and she says this is great and she thinks this is a great plan um in full support of the plan. Um it's just that we have to craft it.

she sent me more. And also, I forgot to say that I reported that I went to on Zoom um the the Bristol County Opioid Task Force. So, I did a meeting with them and they also sent me information that I asked them to that what we were trying to do here. Um and and they sent me a whole list of different positions.

Um I don't know if I forwarded.

Yeah, you did.

I did. I keep forwarding all this stuff to you guys for you to look at. So you can get an idea of what other people towns are doing, municipality, municipalities are doing so that when we're crafting ours, we have stuff to pull from.

I have to chuckle over that one because you you sent something from the city of Taton.

Yeah.

And 50 years ago, the city of Taton had an entity. It was a municipal agency called the Taton Municipal Drug Commission.

Its sole job was to work with substance abuse, but they had a separate alcohol.

department. So yeah, I mean we've come a long way since then, but Yes. Yes. So um so anyway, so the the idea of you know the we were looking at the position the draft um and I wrote super I think I wrote supervision on there. My suggestion was that the supervision was going to be between the school department and the town administrator.

And I said the town administrator because of policy because of any specific town policy issues.

I I used to think that was a good idea, but for a lot of reasons I think that's he he should have administrative oversight, but I wouldn't put that in a super. He's got so many people reporting to him.

Yeah.

This is a new position.

So that would be something I would take out. But um but I also put when I put under the supervision piece in the in the draft here it is um that um because Dr. Roy is here on the committee if the person is going to report to us what's happening with those funds that Dr. Roy could do that you could you could do this. Yep. Um supervisor if she designates somebody in your staff

Oh yeah on your team to do that.

Yeah. Me or either one. I mean I do directly supervise folks as well. So that's your call but I think yeah could be you say the school department or Yeah, I would say the school department and then you could do superintendent or designate or something like that if you want.

Designate.

Mhm.

I mean for example like with the SRO's they work for us but they're supervised by the police right? So we have an MO MOA with them or whatever whatever with them about that and how that works. So sort of be the opposite.

Okay.

Possibly. I guess it also depends on what how much time we'd have to you know coordinate with police or even fire right there. I don't know if they're looking for well they so what the fire has not been involved and that's partly because I think um firefighter Parski has just come back to to work after being out on some leave. So um but we haven't heard anything and I sent him everything that

I'm sending you I'm sending to him.

Communicating at the fire department.

It's um firefighter Proski. He's on the committee.

Yes. But we probably should have some communication with Chief Baldwin.

Okay.

He is Baruski is tech technically representing Chief Baldwin.

Well then initially it was Deputy Chief Nunes.

Am I correct in that Donna?

Yes.

And then Nunes kicked it down. So I look at this as you're kicking it down a a chain of command.

The lower in the chain of command the responsibility ends.

The less senior command of the organization is responsive to the mission of the the program.

And this is not a you I'm not talking about yet in fighting fires and and and and uh and you know EMT services and all that emergency response. Yeah, the chain of command works, but if we're sitting here with the superintendent of the school sitting at the table and the police chief sitting at the table and we have somebody at the third or fourth level in the fire department, we're we're we're losing out.

Well he and Chief Bowwin is a pretty easy agreeable guy.

Okay. So, are you suggesting then that I as the chair send an email to uh Chief Baldwin to get his input?

Yes.

And should I send an email to all department heads about the funds and if they have any input into a position like the police? Well, I can't, but police are already involved, but um so part of my suggestion was um that veterans um uh the Council on Aging may have input.

I I would like to get it tight and then as you you got some time as we've got some per time under our belts, we bring in the other departments that are peripheral.

Okay. because it could we could spend a lot of time running around to the various departments.

Well, I mean it's not that we are not known to the fire department, right? Well, then because they have the deputy chief was on this committee.

Was Glenn News a deputy chief?

He was a lieutenant. I don't know whether he was deputy chief or he was an he was a committee.

Okay.

Okay. Well, I may have I mean, it may be worth a conversation with with Chief Baldwin to say, "Okay, this is how we're this is how we're represented around the table. What's the best way for your department to be represented?"

Mhm.

Particularly since they have EMTs responding to situations, right?

Well, that's drug overdoses and stuff. Correct. Yeah.

So you want top management to be aware that this is a an asset to the top and that they're a stakeholder.

Okay, I can do that.

Okay.

But in the meantime, I do think we can uh continue to sort of tighten this up.

To get it moving.

Okay.

Yeah.

Would would you want to meet with me to do this?

Yeah, we can do that. Okay.

All right. And And so I'm sure there's a lot to tighten up. Um I that's why I wanted to start with something by presenting the the draft. Was there anything else on the draft that you that you have seen that you feel needs to be um changed other than the you know the things you've already mentioned?

I mean there's as I said I expected you guys to tear this up. So to say you need to do this different and you need to do that different.

No, I think it represents the kind of discussions we've had.

We're just sort of critiquing or analyzing the the the positioning of it in terms of seeing it as a public document as opposed to something that we've been working on as a committee and how does it land publicly and who does it attract for referrals and things like that.

So let's say for next meeting we'll have a final draft that we can present.

Okay.

Right.

And then we'll see if everybody Yeah. So we'll meet in between. We'll do a final have a final draft ready. We can perhaps vote on it and uh Sounds good.

Move forward.

Okay. And then we can work out the details with like fire and police or if I you know if we you know move forward with this and everything goes as planned.

And you'll involve Val Val since she put a fair amount of thought into it before today's meeting didn't she?

I'm sorry.

Val, what about her?

Be involved in that final workout.

Well, yeah. She's she's a very big policy person too when it comes to this stuff because she's done a lot of this.

So, um, she said that she would want to meet with me so that we could look at it too. So, um, maybe the three of us can refine it.

But, um, one of the questions I have and I don't know if that would muddy any water or not. Um, I did ask the person who's in Easton if they would be willing to come and speak to us. Do you think that would be helpful or not helpful? because she's doing the she's doing this job with the police department. She's in the community and I wanted to basically say like what are the issues that you're

dealing with? What are some of the problems? What are some of the the things that you hadn't anticipated and needed to be addressed so that we can be thinking about those things and planning I think if you position it differently basically said thank you for all your input and suggestions we've come out we've developed a revised to that but now that we've relied on heavily on your

job description we'd like now to have some questions questions, you know, about your experience so that we're not we're not asking her for input on this.

No, no, no. I'm not asking her for I want to hear about her experiences, you know, cuz sometimes things happen and like we didn't anticipate this that this was going to be a problem or this was going to be an issue. So, yeah, I just don't know in this particular job description does it in the east one, does she work with schools?

That I don't know. I can I'm hoping to talk with her before then before inviting her. So because that's one of the issues is do is there a position like this anywhere where is someone and are we creating something that's really unique maybe um so but I in the positions that were sent to me none of them seem to be a combined right it's either your school or well the Dartmouth person she what is she's

kind of doing all the coordinating she is but I think that one of the things that um that David had mentioned was that her connection ction with people in the community was very limitant um with people who were struggling with substance use. And so this position is going to be somebody who's going to be really engaging more in the community um and identifying because that's I really heard David when

he when David when you said you know well the this who's going to who's going to be reaching out to the people who are really struggling and and I said part of it is we haven't been able to really identify anybody because no one's really coming forward um they're not going to come to this meeting but but um or maybe they would that they're currently struggling And are those individuals

going to Fall River in New Bedford?

Because that's what I talked about in the meeting um with the Bristol and the Bristol task force is that I think people are just going to where the services are and they're not here in Westport. They've if they were from Westport um then they are going to those places where services are available, where transportation is available. And one of the things they talked about which was the focus of the Bristol County task

force was the focus on and I don't know how Attalboro is how many people are incarcerated but when people are coming out the focus was on housing the biggest problem is housing they have no place to go to have the support they need to stay um clean to not use and and one of the places that is really even harder is for women that the number of beds that are available in sober housing is there's

like 3,000 in Massachusetts and only 400 and something are for women and so that's there was one um was it gray is the name of a sober living in the outro area I believe and it's four women and that person spoke and how um everybody who comes out of incarceration needs a lot of support. The other resource that was available was um uh it was a religious St. St. Paul there. It's it's a religious group ador

Vincent the Paul.

Oh yeah. Well, that's yeah that's St. Vinc and they said and where our resources are stretched but they try to provide almost every parish has a St. Vincent depal right you probably have two St. Vincent depal chapters in Westport okay so that so that they provide when people come out of incarceration may provide clothes may provide some basic necessities and then hopefully temporary housing right

so Westport we don't have anything like that as I'm I'm aware of we may have a St. Vincent to Paul chapters with the two churches we have in town. Actually we have I think we have three churches in town but um but I don't know what they do.

Right. So so again addressing the particular needs of people who are struggling with currently with addiction uh with substance use disorder or opioid use disorder. identifying them in the community is one of the big things and whether or not this person would have some liaison with people coming out of incarceration to be able to say here we are in Westport and we're here to support you and help you. So is

not just incarceration, it'll be treatment uh treatment programs and all of that.

Yeah.

Rehabilitation and halfway houses.

Yeah.

And it won't be in halfway houses. Oh, at one point there were there were probably some halfway houses here, but um you know that's where actually some of like Star and a few others they might tell you where are the halfway houses?

Are there any in Westport? what are the ones of the communities nearest to us?

Because that would be that would be the exit. And then they they would they might have landlord listings uh places that have accepted uh people that have discharged from their halfway houses.

I'm not aware of any in Westport, but there may be I mean one that's on the Westport Dartmouth line. And you know that may something that the advocate do but that that might be a source of of of referrals right people coming.

Yeah. So I think um there's a way to um because I really heard you David when you're have concerns about people who are actively struggling um with opioid use disorder and how we reach them and that's been an issue. How do we reach them?

May I ask a question?

Sure.

Um how do you handle um confidentiality in that situation?

In what situation?

When let's say you hire someone to be a coordinator and they make contact with individuals who are suffering from substance use disorder.

Um how will the confidentiality of those clients be maintained.

So that so that is in part of is in here and that's in many of the other descriptions is they must maintain um um conf strict confidentiality file confidentiality laws and if someone is credentialed or licensed it's it's certainly is in inherent in the lensure and the credentiing that that is expected but shouldn't they have a form to sign?

This is going to sound hard. You're bureaucratic, but a person comes into contact with somebody, is it HIPPA or something like that?

Well, so along those like say board of health.

Mhm.

You do STD stuff, right?

No.

Oh, you don't?

Not that I'm aware of. We we have a nurse who provides um well our nurse is now retired so we don't have a nurse right now. Um will provide certain flu vaccines. Um but there's and there's Maven that addresses um communicable diseases. I don't know if that was one of the areas that we dealt with TB stuff through the board of health.

No.

So, who does the TB for the town?

It's not It's not through for supervised treatment.

It's probably through um their own healthcare provider. It's like so so the town nurse and what her role is was very limited in terms of that kind of thing.

But I could be wrong that Bristol County is is there a health office for Bristol County? What do you mean for public health?

Yeah. I I mean I'm just going by analogy with TB. Like say say someone needs supervised treatment for TB, you know, ma mandated.

Oh, you know, then if if that would come through that that would come through Maven and then the town nurse would help Maven.

Yeah. There's it's a it's a a database for the public health department so that they know when somebody has a communicable disease.

Yeah.

So um so if someone has active TB then the town board of health would be notified. The nurse would take care of following up and doing um reaching out to the person. Um but I don't know the extent of what her responsibility is other than reaching out and making sure that the that the person um has support Maven is a state database.

I believe it's a state.

So the state communicates Yes.

when necessary with the board of Yes. to the public health.

So if you had someone living in town who needed supervised TB treatment, the state would notify you. Correct. And then Okay. And right now we don't have a nurse. So what we're doing because of the collaborative is we have a nurse now from um town in the collaborative who is monitoring Maven to alert us and also to come to town um and to provide some support.

So you're if you hire a coordinator that person would have to keep records that are not discoverable by the law enforcement etc.

It would I would they'd have to maintain confidentiality. So I would say yes, it would be protected.

So that's allowed.

Yeah.

Okay.

It should be they're not committing I mean it should be okay.

But that's one of the things that we can I can also ask with other towns is how are they managing that?

Yeah.

Right. How do you manage that? How do you make sure that if somebody, you know, for me as a as a you as a doctor, me as a nurse, you know, we we have to I have to at MLAN sign confidentiality agreements every year.

Well, there are a number of factors. One is law enforcement, the other is ICE.

Yeah. Right.

Well, that's a whole another. Well, no, but I mean you'd think you want to make sure that confidentiality is safeguarded.

Mhm.

So people would feel comfortable coming forward.

So let me ask um Dr. Roy Fran, how does confidentiality maintain um in school? Every year we go through all our man mandated trainings and for us certainly Furper's one of them but I mean our nurses they're all HIPPA compliant right all those those records are but that's you know in particular to the students the student records we don't obviously carry records on families right if we're going to the adults right

but every year we have we have it online now so we get it all So if this person certainly is going to be supervised by me, then they would have to take that mandatory uh mandatory training, but it would just cover more of the student issues. We probably would need something else for the HIPPA uh stuff for or non- studentents really for, you know, for the adults and maybe we have to see with the police

department. They must have some of their training too, I'm sure. Whatever the police department's doing.

I don't know how they do it.

Yeah, that's a good I'm a good question.

I can we can send them something to Michelle about that. How do they maintain confidentiality because they're the ones she and one other officer are the ones who are going out and going into the homes after after overdose.

Yeah, it could be very tricky to say the least.

Well, they haven't given up. you know when they've done reporting they don't give they give numbers to us they don't give names to us right right but right so they're maintaining confidentiality that way somewhere okay any other concerns or issues that you think we need to emphasize in as we craft this um description and position confidentiality is it really important.

Um I I know I've written confidentiality somewhere in here. Um policy.

Yes. Um must adhere to all state and federal laws particularly regarding confidentiality and policy awareness.

And then we can have someone sign something as well about confidential like I do at MLAN every year, right?

It's part of my um what's what's required all the education stuff and then you sign a confidentiality agreement.

So confidentiality any other um other concerns or things we need to emphasize or try to understand better as we craft this.

I think that's good.

All right. So, so the plan will be anything that you think of, you can email me or andor Fran. Um, say we need to change. Look at look at everything that I've sent you. If you have a chance to do that, um, pick out things that you think we really need to include or not include. Um, particular issues you're worried about in this position and um, and then we'll work on it.

Bella has already sent her hers but I will meet with her too and um we'll continue the process.

Part of it is also so in crafting this the idea is that the position because it's a combined position with school financial support and the opioid settlement fund support that it will be a full-time position. So that also comes with benefits when it's a full-time position. So then we have to look at how does that factor into the total cost, right? Um, so that's something that you probably have a better handle on. Uh,

well, the the town covers the benefits for our staff. That's not in our um operating budget.

Okay.

So, that's might be a Chris Vitali question.

So, benefits are not in your budget.

No, but when you budget a position, you have to create a a a plug for benefits.

It's a percentage number.

Yeah. But it technic I mean it's all sort of it is but technically when we submit our school budget the the um when we give numbers for salary the benefits are not included in that that's gets now what about grant positions grant positions are different so for grant positions we do have to put in the budgets um we have to put it in but that's because it's a mass uh mtrs Massachusetts teacher retirement system

sort of thing going on there. So, I think that's up for conversation. And who eats the does the opioid settlement funds eat the um pay for the benefits or does the town contribute as well and pick up the cost for the benefits?

It's going to be it's going to be tough for the town to contribute when the town is also um budgetarily right very restricted.

I mean, we're talking one position. So, but the thing is is that when you if you re if you're rethinking the position and what the qualifications of the individual are, will that change the rate of pay that you had envisioned?

Um, I think if that will be determined after we have a a discussion with the distribution of time between school and fire, police or town needs, you know, we I think we'd have to look at it as well.

Yeah. So, I mean, my my thinking is that it would be a position where um if it's say 3 days a week in the school and then two days a week.

Yeah, we'd have to work that out. I mean, so I think we would base the salary. It's it is a very different job description. So, we would base what the salary is based on this job description versus what I was writing before, which is a whole different animal.

But but you but you had your different animal was someone to address the needs of students and families and yes and but encompassing all the mental health whether there was a substance abuse issue or not.

It was just that much broader okay kind of wrap around.

Is that something that that you're willing to make changes on because I think well I think this is the job description right? So, I think it is we go here and I can I can work with this because it's just like this is a referral from our school department to this person or we can just call the pick up the phone and say this family needs help right now or this

child, you know, um what can you do to help us?

I'm wondering if you would it help to talk to the adjustment counselors to see what their input would be with us. Uh yeah, we we could certainly do that because they certainly address the mental health stuff with the with the kids.

Yes. Yes. And no, but there's a lot of um collaborating with outside district. So yes, they do something, but sometimes it's a level that we need outside counseling.

Okay, we have external providers coming in, right? They're not really doing therapy necess a regular basis necessarily, right? They're not all clinicians.

Okay.

Um I think um it just sounds like it's going to be a compromise for you.

It's okay. I'll take I'll take what I can get. I mean, I do think it's a Yes. I mean, there's other things and I I I certainly can work on, but I do think it's important for the town of Westport that there are adults out there, not just kids, um that would need this support as well. So, I'm certainly willing to share, you know, and work on other ways to get in my other tiers of

of mental health support that need to happen.

Okay.

All right. So, we'll we can talk about all the Yeah, let's work. I would say let's get this is a pretty good job description. I think it's broad enough where, you know, we can take advantage of it in the school and hopefully police and fire.

And I think after a year we would know more. We would be able to look at right they're collecting data where this person is spending their time how you know what's the biggest impact and that doesn't mean we can't change it up in the future. It's almost like a pilot in in in some way for a position and if the money goes away but this is a really valuable position and we've worked out

the kinks then you know maybe as as town departments we do want to invest in it completely. right now you're help right you're helping pilot this innovative school public safety uh partnership we don't have a lot of examples of it right so I didn't see any and it's it's in nothing in joining with the schools the only one I can think of is in Dartmouth where Rachel's available to the schools but I don't know it's not

the same as what where we're trying to craft infrastru we're trying to create an infrastructure right between the the town departments so yes so after we do it and get instead of just farming out money at a conference yeah and instead of farming out money to because one of the things that Dartmouth was did was they just gave money to the school right but they didn't have as far as I could

tell any followup or in inter you know interactions or specific education and I know that that they have a person just for the for the student advocate, you know, they have someone just for the students, but it seems like their money and I don't, you know, know why they're on the list of what I just said before, but it could be um you know, and they gave money for the vape detectors,

right, in the school. That's what they gave money for. So, is that part of what's going on? I don't know. We'll find out.

Okay.

But okay. So, you and I are going to work on it, Val. And I want input from everyone. And I know that David didn't agree with this position, but I still want your input.

I still want to hear what your challenges are for us so that we can like confidentiality, how we can address those things, right? So, and you know, and and I hope that you're appreciating that. really am also wanting to make sure that the people who are struggling with opioid use disorder currently are going to be able to get access to the support they need. We just have to identify who they are. And one of the

things that was talked about in the um in the Bristol County task force was miniig grants and they use the mini grants to support people going to sober housing and they pay directly to the sober house for that person. So how we could identify if this we have a person who can identify and work with corrections who's coming out who needs a sober house do they have funds is they are they from

Westport can we help support that in many grants so those are the other things that we need to look at which is really like the RFA what what Craig you talked about needing the RFA right so so there's a way for us to be able to do it all but we need somebody to to to be in position to do all that outreach and connections.

So process we are on committee planning next steps or we already did that.

Well, we're not on that but we can talk about next steps.

I think we already well next steps are for us to work on develop our main focus is getting this done.

Are there any other things that we need to do? We need to investigate confidentiality.

David, would you be willing to look at how Yeah.

Okay.

So, um, so we'll do we'll continue to work on that and look at some of these issues. Are there any other topics um not anticipated 48 hours in advance?

That's where I come back to what I meant mentioned when I first got here, which is the hybrid meeting.

Oh, hybrid meeting. Okay. So, um, so is everybody in favor of doing a hybrid meeting?

Yes.

Yeah. Yes.

Okay. So, I'll take a motion from Craig.

I will move that we um explore and implement hybrid meetings.

Okay. Second.

Okay.

All in favor?

I I Okay. So, we'll do the next meeting and hybrid.

And our next meeting is October 20th.

There's no other business. I would. Okay.

Second.

Okay.

All in favor?